Spiritual Practices
Faith

Books

Simple Faith: Margaret Silf, who believes that our relationship with God provides us with meaning, probes the challenges and rewards of the Christian faith.

Joy Together: Lynne M. Baab discusses communal spiritual disciplines that enrich faith and serve as correctives to major toxic forces at work in society.

Green Leaves for Later Years: Emilie Griffin presents how faith informs her spiritual journey in her later years as a 75-year-old Christian.

Velvet Elvis: Rob Bell offers a vision of a new kind of Christian faith that is both passionate and open-minded.

Saints as They Really Are: Michael Plekon has written the third in a series of books about holiness and people of faith who put their spirituality to work in the world.

The Book of Elders: John Wortley presents an authoritative and expanded collection of sayings about faith of the Desert Fathers.

The Heart of Christianity: Marcus J. Borg, who calls himself a devoted but non-exclusivist Christian, sets out in cogent, compassionate, and imaginative terms the direction of the Christian way in difficult times.

Shopping for Faith: Richard Cimino delivers a well-researched, thought-provoking, and wide-ranging analysis of contemporary developments in American religion and spirituality.

Finding Your Religion: Scotty McLennan relates the stories of a variety of individuals and the different stages of their faith development.

Growing Up Religious: Robert Wuthnow interviews over 200 individuals about their childhood experiences of the sacred.

Fiction

A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving is a rare and wonderful testament to the fervor and resilience of faith. The narrator of the story is John Wheeler, a teacher in Toronto who introduces himself with the statement that he believes in God because of Owen Meany, his friend since childhood. Owen is a bit of a freak in their town. For one thing, he's very short. For another, even as a youngster, he is convinced that he is meant to be "God's instrument." Although he faces many tribulations over the years, Owen emerges from them unscathed. Eventually he foresees the date and circumstances of his own sacrificial death. Owen's kind of belief — that God has a plan for his life — is a cornerstone of faith.